The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-09
BRowNINo's NEW POEMS.
A Book That VIII Give tho Numcr-
GUS "Clubs' n Fine Opportunity
for Profound Study.


for Profound study.
"Hence, get ye homcward. ye great
and renowned ones, nights children
unchilded. with kindly attendance
so, in English, run the words wherein
Eschylus takes farewell Of the Eumen-
ides. Mr.. Browning Fates-Clotho.
Lachesis, and Atropos-bld us good-by
in his new poem thus;
Clotho: Bah
Lachesls- Tra-la-la
Atropos: Ha, ha, ha!
1t is true that words of Apolo's in
terrupt these laconic greetings. and yet.
looking Mt the printed page, one feels
inclined to ask, Is this poetry, or an
extra ct from some classical extravan-
"a at the Savoy theaterP Romanticism
is indeed triumphant Perrault and
Hugo have tr.umphed over Boileau,
and Aristotle, and Eschylus, when a
Justly famous English poet can take
those liberties with the Fates. Even in
the days of Theophile, of the flamboy-
ant waistcoat, it may be doubted
whether the widest of the generation
would have made Clotho, Lachesis,
and Atropos drink the wine of mortals
till they said bah, "tra-la-la," and
"Ha, ha. ha" to a god" Say boo to
you, pooh-pooh to you is within meas
urabe distance of this familiarity. Mr.
Browning's new volume, in which
these and other singularities occur. is
styled 'Parleving with certain people"
1t is a return. and we think more for
tunate return, to the form of art in
which Mr.. Browning wrought his best,
his immortal poems, the poems OF MEN
and Women" and "Bramatis, Per-
sonm." The prologue between Apollo
and the Fates is headed with referen-
ces to texts in the Homeric hymn to
Hermes, in the "Eumenides, " and in
"AlcesG, Apollo held dialogue on
the value of Mortal life, and especially
on the life Of .simetus for whom AL
cestis died with the Fates. The ideas
of the poem are interesting, and cast
their light on the foundations of
things. 1t is too late to presume to
argue with Mr.. Browning on his meth
DDS. Lord Tennyson in youth altered
many of his poetic ways, as age brought
the philosophic mind, and the phlo-
sophie mind, as it CHANGED, rejected
most of the things which criticism had
censured. But Mr.. Browning has ever
taken his own way. The classical taste
of the mere perruque with which we
confess a sympathy might deferen-
tally demur to a speech like this.
which Mr.. Browning assigns to Lache-
SIS
woe-rnrpled, weal-prankt-if it speed, If 1t
Llfe'ssubstance and show are determined by
Who, meeting out, mixing with sure thumb
and finger.
Lead look the due length; Is all smoothness
and glee,
All tangle and griefl take the lot, my decree
The speech, difficult even with the
context, sufficiently displays the causes
of Mr.. Brownings obscurity, discovers
in his style those tenebriferous stars"
bv which Paracelsus is said to have cx-
planned the phenomena of night.
Strange stars rayed out darkness, Par
acelsus dreamed. here be the similar
consultations Tor few of them) that
make Mr. Browing's poetry obscure 10
the multitude. First come odd words;
"Shun an unusual word like hidden
reef is said to have been the maxim OF
no less a critic than Caius Julius Cesar.
Now, "purpled," in the first line, is a
very unusual word. Speaking from
memory alone we remember no more
familiar use of it than that of Mallory
in the Mort d'Arthur," king Ryahce
would purple his mantle with twelve
kings beads" One can fancy the we'll
meaning student of poetry looking out
purple" in his Eng ish dictionary, and
practice of that sort is chilling work.
''Weal-prankt" is not so difficult.
Doubtless the poet uses these archa-
isms ard these clashing consonants
purposcly. to indicate the archaic char
acter of the venerable Fates and the
harshness of their dispositions. In the
same stanza the words dead lock the
due length" entirely battle us. We
have tried dead" and clock" both as
substantives and verbs, but unless they
are employed in some technical sense
we fail TO get any meaning out of them.
This may be mere dizziness OF appre-
hension, but other English poets yield
up their treasures of their sense more
easily. The next stanza, Ineligible
enough, causes, like most of Chap
mans poetry and good deal of Keats
"Endymion" an uncomfortable feeling.
as if rhyme had suggested the express
sion. rather than that the expression
subdued TO itself the thyme.
The Fates, whose business it is to as
,;rx,, o,,r mortal thraad xvaavo n aud